http://aja.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=1778213Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Follow-Up: A University Clinic PerspectivePurpose:
To evaluate the referral and follow-up procedures at a university clinic to determine whether the early intervention program is achieving the goals of diagnosis of hearing loss by 3 months, amplification within 1 month of diagnosis, and intervention services by 6 months, as outlined in the Joint Committee ...2009-12-01T00:00:00Site VisitLata A. Krishnan

Purpose:
To evaluate the referral and follow-up procedures at a university clinic to determine whether the early intervention program is achieving the goals of diagnosis of hearing loss by 3 months, amplification within 1 month of diagnosis, and intervention services by 6 months, as outlined in the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH; 2007) position statement.

Method:
Files for 142 infants were examined, and the following data were collected from each file: date of birth, birth hospital, hometown, parents' ages, ethnicity, nursery status (well baby or neonatal intensive care unit), medical history, age at initial evaluation and at diagnosis, results of evaluation(s), and age at hearing aid fitting and start of early intervention services.

Results:
Results revealed that 17% of infants were older than 3 months at the initial evaluation, and 18% of infants who needed further evaluation were lost to follow-up. None of the infants identified with hearing loss received amplification within 1 month of diagnosis or early intervention services by the age of 6 months.

Conclusions:
The findings provide further evidence of the challenges of early intervention programs as stated by the JCIH (2007), and they emphasize the importance of communication between practitioners and implementation of monitoring systems and checks and balances to improve the efficacy of early intervention programs.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Sadie Vojak for her assistance with gathering the majority of the data, Andrea Edgerton and Megan Lyons for their help with data collection, and Gayla Hutsell-Guignard for providing information about Indiana EHDI procedures and protocols, assisting with tracking some of the infants, and providing the map of Level 1 facilities. Portions of this data were presented at the annual convention of the Indiana Speech-Language-Hearing Association in March 2008.

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